What are some works of fiction that address managing 'unlawful' behavior in ways that don't utterly dehumanize people?
It's not showing up much in my fantasy fiction, but I notice there's a sizeable gap in my worldbuilding when it comes to because I've only ever seen policing and prison as shitty in real life.
The closest I have is semi-formal community policing where people work on mandated shifts, but it's more of a town guard from monsters/the occasional magical brawl.
Also if there are some good bits of real world writing on alternatives to policing, I'd love to see those too.
The Dispossessed is always relevant! It's been a while since I read it so I forget the exact details about the alternative to imprisonment, but the episode with the kids playing prison I still remember.
Not from any work of fiction, but from history so not exactly worldbuilding either but hopefully relevant:
cw:death
In the past when living to old age was more of a burden than it is today, it was expected for old people to just leave society.
For example in Indian tradition, the last stage of life after being a householding adult with a family is to walk off into the forest and meditate until death/enlightenment. But today, that's no longer the case, and the elderly can live rich lives still without being a burden...as long as they are not poor. In fact there is a kind of problem in parts of India IIRC where young couples poison their parents to get rid of them.
Oh yeah I guess The Giver has something related to this. Also you might see a parallel in how criminals and the diseased are treated in other parts of the world and history. Like they were often immediately executed, or exiled eg. leper colonies. The incarcerated and the disabled have not been treated as free peoples or something approaching the concept until capitalism came around, and people started seeing them as a form of cheap labor.
Until then, they were scum to be disposed of, or maybe feared as an other, sometimes magical, such as with the diseased and disabled. Another thing I can think of is Third Gender people in India, who are part of this kind of mafia that people respect but fear as they can cast the evil eye on them or mark them for social humiliation if they don't pay them off. Again, it's the Other who doesn't contribute to society is seen as an incursion upon society and has magical thinking associated with them
I might be going off-topic here, but maybe you can work off that? But connect the magical thinking to literal magic or magic system. It could even be an exploration of the magic itself and the concept of policing (state vs mafia vs community). Like the exclusion from society gives one magical powers, or removes it. So the police vs unions vs syndicates vs militias etc. gain their own powers.
Some more thoughts on that last bit: it always fascinated me how organizations like the mafia started out as something the Left would appreciate as a community organization, or how fascists twisted the ideas of unions and syndicalism from the Left. Even the Third Gender thing I mention, I feel conflicted about since it's a racket but from context and history I know how they have been kind of forced into making a living that way. Even situations like people of color becoming police officers, trying to help their community. A lot of moral grayness I think could make for a good story
Oh my god this is all so helpful. Thank you! The societies I'm writing are flawed, but ultimately good. However, I wanted to have a better framework for how the unwanted people in society are seen and this provides a lot of context.
There were serious events that happened in the setting that led to the establishment of a response force, but material conditions worsened and the organization became an extension of the governing body.
I also wanted to explore other forms of punishment and restorative justice through the implementation of magic. I'll definitely check out the Dispossessed. It's been on my list to read, but I moved it up several spaces.
Thanks again!